811 P285/P287 Software Update

[Scott Greczkowski]

The following was posted by Jason Nipp at DBSTalk and have been reposted here by permission of Dish Network.

P285 is now spooling.​

Here are the final release notes:

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Software version P285 is currently scheduled for release to spool on Thursday, March 17th for the DISH 811 receiver.

Changes and Enhancements in P285 from P284:

1. Added QAM support for DISH Network MDU installations.

2. New Important System Information Screen (Phase 1 of Sys Info rework) providing enhanced trouble shooting and status information.

3. Added EPG search feature. Search may be initiated by pressing the "#" key on the remote from the Themes and Search Menu to find programs in the 2 day guide based on keywords in the title or extended information.

4. Improvement for compatibility with more manufacturers and models of Dolby sound systems connected by the SPDIF optical cable.

5. Increased Favorites List capacity.

6. Improvement video in Program Guide.

7. Moved position of caller ID pop up higher on the screen to improve visibility.

8. Added pop up for condition of selecting an event from the guide or browse when a timer was set for that event.

9. Added support for manually adding an analog off-air channel when a digital off-air channel of the same number already existed.

10. Added sub-menu for Closed Captioning "On/Off" control and for "Opacity".

11. Changed conditions to restore video after setting a timer for a PPV event.

12. Improved guide and channel selection treatment of non-sequential channel numbers for off-air digital channels..

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Notice:

DISH Network™, DISH™, and EchoStar™ trademarks in this post are property of their owners and are used with permission. This post was reviewed and approved by EchoStar™.

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[NightRyder]

Warning!

Some important cautions and recommendations for P285!

http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=39882


NightRyder

 

[BFG]

aka, dont download this thing

 

[rad]

I don't belive that it took E* 15 months to fix the favorites list limitation (it was supposed to be unlimited from the get go).

 

[mongo61350]

Haven't received my P285 software upgrade yet.Has it been out awhile? I've let my receiver off every night,but still no luck.

 

[BFG]

it's really slow update, so they can mess with the guinea pigs and see if anything is screwed up. I'm usually in the first batch and I have automatic downloads off and haven't been bugged to accept it yet, so it probably is slow...

 

[WeeJavaDude]

Haven't received my P285 software upgrade yet.Has it been out awhile? I've let my receiver off every night,but still no luck.

It released yesterday to a very limited group. I would give it at least a couple of weeks before being concerned.

 

[ktriebol]

I received the P285 update on 17 Mar. So far so good. I watch OTA channels too and most of the problems in the past seemed to arise due to watching OTA. If I can go for a week without experiencing program guide malfunctions I will be a happy camper.

 

[John Kotches]

Agreed that the bulk of my 811 issues are related to OTA.

Losing stations, losing mappings, toasting timers etc all occur with frustrating regularity on 811, which I'm hoping is solved with 285.

If not, it's not like I have a better option with local cable. The Charter franchise in the STL area hasn't made up to the level of being good enough to suck yet!

Cheers,

 

[Moman19]

RE: Charter in St. Louis (HQ city to boot!)

Amen, Brother!

 

[jynx]

I solved the problem by getting a new mits hdtv with built in tuner (very understanding wife). Great local hd as well as espn and discover hd through the 811 (yes I'm paying $10.00 for the pleasure of watching 20/30 year old movies in "hd".) Hope 285 restores picture quality to some of dish's regular offerings, but since it is apparently a bandwidth problem doubt if it will help.
jynx

 

[Foxbat]

I solved the problem by getting a new mits hdtv with built in tuner (very understanding wife). Great local hd...
jynx

I hope your Mits is better with PSIP than mine is. Both my 6000 and my 811 show our local religious ATSC station as 46-01 (which is how it should be) but my Mits WS-55613 reads it as 48.03, no matter how many times I try re-scanning. I think it needs a firmware update

Have any more 811 users received P285 yet? I'd say "shades of P282", but I'm not seeing the horror stories like we did with that release. We're still waiting here...

 

[rocatman]

Perhaps Dish is rolling out P285 so slowly so that by the time everyone has it, they will be releasing P286. I am also still waiting for P285 although P284 is behaving fairly well for me so I guess I should just be patient.

 

[jbcheshire]

Jynx,
Are you not getting the six months free HD package from Dish? That would drive your costs down to $5/month for a year.

 

[WJMorales]

Looks like 2.85 might be full of BUGS! Very slow rollout. It's 3 weeks and counting, since it started releasing. Scott, your two dollars is needed, please.

 

[Foxbat]

Looks like 2.85 might be full of BUGS! Very slow rollout. It's 3 weeks and counting, since it started releasing.

WJ, I haven't seen any posts here or over at DBSTalk that indicate that P2.85 is "full of BUGS". Maybe Dish thinks that the added features are something to roll out slowly to avoid overloading the CSRs?

 

[WeeJavaDude]

285 is not full of BUGS!! I have it and am running on it. I am trying to track down and issue the tonyp has beeing seeing so I am stressing it pretty good. I did run into something intially (Right after download) that a soft reboot fixed. Other than that, things are running smoothly. 285 is definitely not riddled with BUGS but there was a lot of changes so a slow roll out does not suprise me. This is what usually is considered a high risk update because of the Commercial QAM support and expanded favorites list.

 

[WJMorales]

BTW, guys am sorry if implied the wrong statement. I just recall that a previous version that took quite awhile to go wide spread, was eventually scrapped because of the bugs. Am at 2.84 and no problems here. I am in no hurry for 2.85. I will wait my turn.

 

[NightRyder]

Something's going on with P285. In the 811 forum at DBS Talk all of the P285 discussion threads have been locked and a new mysterious thread on P287 has been started by Jason. WJD, Jason, what's up?


NightRyder

 

[WeeJavaDude]

Stay tuned NightRyder, I am sure Jason will fill you guys in when he knows the details. For the record, 285 has been a solid performer for me after that one initial hickup.